A speech by Greg Medcraft, Chairman, Australian Securities and Investments Commission to the Law Council of Australia, Business Law Section Corporations Workshop (Gold Coast, Queensland) 19 June 2016
Introduction
It is good to have this opportunity to speak about culture. Thinking about culture is time well spent. Good culture is critical for businesses that want to be around for the long term.
We are at an exciting time in history, when technological innovation is rewriting almost every industry including the financial services industry.
Recently, Max Levchin, PayPal co-founder and former chief technology officer, said he thinks that his new fintech start-up, Affirm, will challenge global financial institutions with his new model designed to better align with customer interests. Regardless of whether this particular vision succeeds, it is evident that new disruptors will continue to challenge incumbents.
In a new Telstra report, Millennials, mobiles and money, it was stated that banks have a ‘massive amount of "trust capital". This is a major competitive advantage for the traditional financial institutions to leverage, but trust is perishable’. The report goes on to say, ‘the threat from fintech is significant’.
In this environment, genuinely considering the needs of your customers is imperative. Firms that do not have a good culture risk losing their customers to firms that do.